Summer Transfer Window 2021

[CanadaSaint]

9 minutes ago, Lallana's Left Peg said:

The decision to sell Ings for such a good fee should have only happened if they are sure they can purchase players to replace him and retain our presence in the league.  If the club sold him without knowing who they could realistically get in then it is a massive risk that means the fee is less attractive to me.  If Ings had no intention of signing then £30m sounds good in principle but if we end up signing players who between them cannot replace his goals then the club is likely relegated.

I'll decide on whether or not the Ings deal was good firstly on 1st September, and then with hindsight at the end of next May.

As for the overall criticism it is entirely probable that both Semmens et al are doing a good job and the club is decaying can both be true.  The club heading in one direction is no criticism of our board when you consider they are playing in a rich mans playground with no money.  Gao needs to find a solution quickly.  

So do you seriously think they should have turned down the $30 million for Ings (around $10 million more than anyone was expecting) because we hadn't already agreed a deal for his replacement? How do you know that they (knowing things that we don't know) aren't confident that they can replace him AND upgrade the squad with the Ings (and probably Vestergaard) money?

While you are willing to "decide on whether or not the Ings deal was good firstly on 1st September, and then with hindsight at the end of next May", there's a big group on here who have already made their decision. That's what I find frustrating.

[ErwinK1961]

15 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Beggars can’t be choosers and all that, but not a fan of loans with no option to buy.

Also, well called SS 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Blackburn's position regarding Armstrong gets more difficult as time progresses. I doubt they want to lose him for £0 next summer.

We aren’t the only show in town though

[Saints4Prem]

Just a thought no one knows who Armstrong wants to go to? He may prefer Saints and is putting pressure on Blackburn which is why we stepped back? No one knows what is happening behind the scenes and only time will tell. I know that it will not go down with the haters who I am surprised say that they are fans. To refer to the club as Clowns is disgraceful in my view especially after the great deal they did with the Ings sale. I do not think I was the only one convinced he would stay as none of the CL clubs were in for him and after the window closed would sign a new deal for security. Villa called his bluff and we accepted a very good offer especially looking at his form post Covid. Only patience will tell what the replacements are but I will trust the Club to do it's best.

 

[Lallana's Left Peg]

7 minutes ago, CanadaSaint said:

So do you seriously think they should have turned down the $30 million for Ings (around $10 million more than anyone was expecting) because we hadn't already agreed a deal for his replacement? How do you know that they (knowing things that we don't know) aren't confident that they can replace him AND upgrade the squad with the Ings (and probably Vestergaard) money?

While you are willing to "decide on whether or not the Ings deal was good firstly on 1st September, and then with hindsight at the end of next May", there's a big group on here who have already made their decision. That's what I find frustrating.

 

I don't think its as clear cut as having a deal lined up for a replacement the moment Villa moved for Ings.  I do think it would be normal and sensible to be kept abreast of the market so that in the eventuality Ings went (for whatever money) we knew what we might do.  I assume the club have done this and feel confident we can retain our status in the league so gave the Ings deal the green light.

Whilst its hard to know what is true and what is not in the media, it doesn't appear on the face of it that the club has been able to act swiftly after Ings' departure which again suggests to me we aren't as sure about things as I might otherwise hope we would be after selling our best player.

Right now we're less than a week from the start of the new season and have one of the worst strike forces in the league and have to hope that one of the most porous defenses last season has got better.  It doesn't exactly fill you with confidence, does it?

 

EDIT - to add to this, signing a kid on loan from Chelsea is the sort of thing you normally see from Championship clubs or promoted teams, not one that has been back in the Premier League nearly a decade now.  Alarm bells should be ringing.  And I would love for him to be brilliant, but the odds are that he isn't right now.

Edited 8 August, 2021 by Lallana's Left Peg

[Badger]

1 minute ago, Lallana's Left Peg said:

 

Right now we're less than a week from the start of the new season and have one of the worst strike forces in the league and have to hope that one of the most porous defenses last season has got better.  It doesn't exactly fill you with confidence, does it?

Allied with two mistake prone GK's, and a midfield heavily reliant on Romeu, and to a lesser extent JWP ~(who may or not be injured, and may or may not be here much longer).

All in all, seems a bit of work to do in the next few days.

[ErwinK1961]

7 minutes ago, Lallana's Left Peg said:

EDIT - to add to this, signing a kid on loan from Chelsea is the sort of thing you normally see from Championship clubs or promoted teams, not one that has been back in the Premier League nearly a decade now.  Alarm bells should be ringing.  And I would love for him to be brilliant, but the odds are that he isn't right now.

I very much doubt he is the ‘Ings’ replacement - suspect he is the ‘second’ forward player we are after 

Who number one is is anyone’s guess

[Badger]

7 minutes ago, Lallana's Left Peg said:

 

EDIT - to add to this, signing a kid on loan from Chelsea is the sort of thing you normally see from Championship clubs or promoted teams, not one that has been back in the Premier League nearly a decade now.  Alarm bells should be ringing.  And I would love for him to be brilliant, but the odds are that he isn't right now.

I would hope that if he's coming in it's as a back up third or fourth choice striker and we still have a 'Plan A' option as a starter. Can this kid be any worse than Long and Obafemi in what he might offer off the bench ?

[Turkish]

Just now, ErwinK1961 said:

I very much doubt he is the ‘Ings’ replacement - suspect he is the ‘second’ forward player we are after 

Who number one is is anyone’s guess

The fella from Leipzig is apparently a non start. I would assume as they paid €20m for him two years ago they want more than we’ll pay. So that seems to be the case with 3 of our top targets. Not a great situation 

[FarehamSaintJames]

Ambitious club us.

Going for teenagers with no Premier League experience in order to replace established and clinical players with international experience isn’t a good recipe for trying to stay up.

[tunit]

3 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Ambitious club us.

Going for teenagers with no Premier League experience in order to replace established and clinical players with international experience isn’t a good recipe for trying to stay up.

This clearly isn't the Ings replacement. It has been reported in the last 24 hours that we are in for a young forward as well as a signing who is as close to replacing Ings as we can get. Broja is clearly the former of these two signings. 

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Ambitious club us.

Going for teenagers with no Premier League experience in order to replace established and clinical players with international experience isn’t a good recipe for trying to stay up.

Why are you assuming this is the Ings replacement? The Athletic are saying the club want to sign 2 strikers... one young one to develop and then another more established player.

[Teddeer]

2 hours ago, TWar said:

Looks good to me. 12 goal contributions (10 goals) in about 1900 minutes in the Eredivisie for Vitesse. Not bad at all for a 19 year old. Would be excited to sign him and have a buy back like Livramento rather than a loan, seems to have potential.

At a quick glance seems to be used to playing in a front two, given Vitesse seem to mainly play a 352. I'd be happy enough with him plus another.

On his skills video he looks powerful, quick and able to beat opponents. Plenty of goals and assists there too. Probably won't happen but he has a lot about him that would help us up front. Maybe Tino can put a word in.

[MarkSFC]

5 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Ambitious club us.

Going for teenagers with no Premier League experience in order to replace established and clinical players with international experience isn’t a good recipe for trying to stay up.

Clearly he is the "second" player mentioned and bot the permanent replacement for Ings. 

This is quite exciting. As for experience he is a full international and played in the Eredivisie last season 30 times scoring 10 goals and in a team that finished 4th.  

[Billy the Kidd]

Just now, MarkSFC said:

Clearly he is the "second" player mentioned and bot the permanent replacement for Ings. 

This is quite exciting. As for experience he is a full international and played in the Eredivisie last season 30 times scoring 10 goals and in a team that finished 4th.  

Agree this could be exciting, but more if we are buying him, not keen on a straight loan with no option on them.

[Teddeer]

2 hours ago, Turkish said:

 

Would want more than 15 million but not adverse to him going.

[DT]

Southamptloan

[The Curse of St Mary's]

Dan Sheldon says we are pushing to make it permanent. Can't see it myself as he's only just signed new contract. Positive signing either way imo 

[MarkSFC]

1 minute ago, Billy the Kidd said:

Agree this could be exciting, but more if we are buying him, not keen on a straight loan with no option on them.

True but better to have than not in this situation I'd think. 

[S-Clarke]

58 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Isn't that what the recruitment department are doing for 10 months of the year ahead of each summer transfer window?

We're now making out someone walked into their office on Thursday morning, announced to them that we've sold Ings and they all spat their tea out in shock?

Not quite the point I was trying to make, probably put it across badly.

I'm not denying that they've been planning, they will have all sorts of options. It seems that some people expected us to be in advanced negotiations with replacements before we'd sold the players etc, that's what we can't really do. We'll have targets, we'll know what we want and who is the best fit, but we can only properly make a move once the money is in the bank.

I'm sure we know what club x want for player y etc, and now we have the money it's about us getting the best possible deal on the table which works for us and them. We have to make this £20 odd mill stretch so I wouldn't want us to cave into the demands of Blackburn overnight, as that would be the budget gone.

[waylander]

4 minutes ago, Teddeer said:

Would want more than 15 million but not adverse to him going.

I agree about the money - need to get more than we paid for him.

Fofana will be back early next year and then big V is on the bench. Is it worth it for him for half a season?

Edited 8 August, 2021 by waylander

[Sunglasses Ron]

34 minutes ago, Saints4Prem said:

Just a thought no one knows who Armstrong wants to go to? He may prefer Saints and is putting pressure on Blackburn which is why we stepped back? No one knows what is happening behind the scenes and only time will tell.

I was thinking this myself. Who’s to know what talks have gone on in the background and that there isn’t some kind of agent, club, player plan afoot? All just theory of course, but dialogue could have started months ago. 
 

As you say, time will tell.

[S-Clarke]

3 minutes ago, DT said:

Southamptloan

We have no one at the club who is on loan, fyi.

[Crab Lungs]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

Just out of interest, how can you seriously forward plan when you have to rely on the sale of a player in order to bring in the new player?

Just because you don’t have the immediate funds doesn’t mean we can’t have identified players in the eventuality of our players (with just one year left) leaving the club. If not, what the f*** are our recruitment team doing?
 

I could probably tell you what they’re doing… clicking through Chelsea U23s on football manager most likely. 

maybe it’s just me, but I do in the line of work I’m in. succession plans for staff, plans on how to grow different aspects or groups of the business, plans for 2022-2025 etc etc. 

[Billy the Kidd]

2 minutes ago, MarkSFC said:

True but better to have than not in this situation I'd think. 

Who knows, until 10 mins ago barely anyone had heard of him. 

He may not end up playing lots if we have him on loan as he may not be quite good enough yet.

Make it a perm and then we can invest how we see fit.

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, Crab Lungs said:

Just because you don’t have the immediate funds doesn’t mean we can’t have identified players in the eventuality of our players (with just one year left) leaving the club. If not, what the f*** are our recruitment team doing?
 

I could probably tell you what they’re doing… clicking through Chelsea U23s on football manager most likely. 

maybe it’s just me, but I do in the line of work I’m in. succession plans for staff, plans on how to grow different aspects or groups of the business, plans for 2022-2025 etc etc. 

I clarified my point above, I didn't put it over clearly enough before. I'm not saying we haven't identified players, I wasn't' saying we haven't planned. We can only actually move once the money is in the bank though - and sadly, that's the bit that takes the time.

I'm not sure why you have such a downer - we are clearly going to add players, our recruitment has gone up a notch in the last two years without Wilson's toxic shit around the place, so let's see what they can do. 

[MarkSFC]

3 minutes ago, Billy the Kidd said:

Who knows, until 10 mins ago barely anyone had heard of him. 

He may not end up playing lots if we have him on loan as he may not be quite good enough yet.

Make it a perm and then we can invest how we see fit.

🤞

[Crab Lungs]

1 minute ago, S-Clarke said:

I clarified my point above, I didn't put it over clearly enough before. I'm not saying we haven't identified players, I wasn't' saying we haven't planned. We can only actually move once the money is in the bank though - and sadly, that's the bit that takes the time.

I'm not sure why you have such a downer - we are clearly going to add players, our recruitment has gone up a notch in the last two years without Wilson's toxic shit around the place, so let's see what they can do. 

Ah it’s not just Saints, it’s the EPL in general tbh. I suppose I’ve been drifting away from it for a while now…

… think I might go do something that makes me feel and talk a bit more positively!

[Give it to Ron]

10 minutes ago, DT said:

Southamptloan

Southamptmoan moan moan 

[Convict Colony]

20 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Ambitious club us.

Going for teenagers with no Premier League experience in order to replace established and clinical players with international experience isn’t a good recipe for trying to stay up.

[Saint Matty 76]

I wish it was anybody else reporting it but TalkSport saying we're looking at Oxlade-Chamberlain on loan as well.

[The Curse of St Mary's]

Just now, Saint Matty 76 said:

I wish it was anybody else reporting it but TalkSport saying we're looking at Oxlade-Chamberlain on loan as well.

Now this would be a good move. 

[Disco Stu]

I like Broja (solely because he became my star striker in a Bradford City football manager 2020 save) but I'm not convinced he's ready for Premier League football. Might be a decent back-up option if we're buying someone else to replace Ings.

Edited 8 August, 2021 by Disco Stu

[ErwinK1961]

2 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

Ah it’s not just Saints, it’s the EPL in general tbh. I suppose I’ve been drifting away from it for a while now…

… think I might go do something that makes me feel and talk a bit more positively!

I think many fans share your feelings CL, not just Saints fan either. 

Bearing in mind the impact of finances these last 18 months, the fact teams have still spent £100m, £97m and £75m on a single player makes you wonder what’s the point.

 

[Convict Colony]

8 minutes ago, Billy the Kidd said:

Who knows, until 10 mins ago barely anyone had heard of him. 

He may not end up playing lots if we have him on loan as he may not be quite good enough yet.

Make it a perm and then we can invest how we see fit.

i saw him play a game for vitesse v ajax he came on as a sub

[Matthew Le God]

23 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

I wish it was anybody else reporting it but TalkSport saying we're looking at Oxlade-Chamberlain on loan as well.

 

Edited 8 August, 2021 by Matthew Le God

[Disco Stu]

Perhaps we could work Choudhury into the Vestergaard deal?

[ErwinK1961]

5 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

I wish it was anybody else reporting it but TalkSport saying we're looking at Oxlade-Chamberlain on loan as well.

*insert joke about the Ox replacing Ings in physio room*

[Billy the Kidd]

3 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

i saw him play a game for vitesse v ajax he came on as a sub

Not sure what your saying. I said maybe barely anyone heard of him.

You like being always right or something 😂

[le_tiss]

11 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Putting the band back together!

 

next up Chambers and ........ (Mane, VVD, Targett etc. etc.!)

 

tbh wouldn't mind Chambers or Targett back 

Edited 8 August, 2021 by le_tiss

[Convict Colony]

1 minute ago, Billy the Kidd said:

Not sure what your saying. I said maybe barely anyone heard of him.

You like being always right or something 😂

[CanadaSaint]

1 minute ago, le_tiss said:

 

next up Chambers and ........ (Mane, VVD, Targett etc. etc.!)

What's Phil Boyer doing these days?

[DT]

Ivan Golac on a free

[stevy777_x]

Broja And the ox would be very shrewd business on loan.

With the Vestergaard sale, that would leave us spending 45 million on a CB and a permanent striker signing.

And we get one of our academy players back again after Theo.

[Sarisbury Saint]

7 minutes ago, stevy777_x said:

Broja And the ox would be very shrewd business on loan.

With the Vestergaard sale, that would leave us spending 45 million on a CB and a permanent striker signing.

And we get one of our academy players back again after Theo.

Just logged in, have I missed something  regarding Vestergard ?

I think one striker, happy with Armstrong rumour a goalie and a CB.

 

 

 

 

[Sarisbury Saint]

Just seen Vestergard thread.

in that case we need two CBS.

[Matthew Le God]

Just now, Sarisbury Saint said:

Just seen Vestergard thread.

in that case we need two CBS.

No we wouldn't. You only really need 4 senior centre backs. We'd have Salisu and Bednarek as first choice, Stephens as back up and then need another player. Plus have the likes of Simeu in the under 23 team.

[The Curse of St Mary's]

1 minute ago, Matthew Le God said:

No we wouldn't. You only really need 4 senior centre backs. We'd have Salisu and Bednarek as first choice, Stephens as back up and then need another player. Plus have the likes of Simeu in the under 23 team.

Bednarek shouldn't be first choice. We need a partner for Salisu. 

[Disco Stu]

1 minute ago, The Curse of St Mary's said:

Bednarek shouldn't be first choice. We need a partner for Salisu. 

Bednarek will be first choice.

[Saint Matty 76]

1 minute ago, The Curse of St Mary's said:

Bednarek shouldn't be first choice. We need a partner for Salisu. 

I agree that he shouldn't be but he most definitely will. Same situation with the keepers unfortunately.